Along an assembly line, diapers and various types of other absorbent articles may be assembled by adding components to and otherwise modifying an advancing, continuous substrate of material. For example, in some processes, advancing substrates of material are combined with other advancing substrates of material. In other examples, individual components created from advancing substrates of material are combined with advancing substrates of material, which in turn, are then combined with other advancing substrates of material. Substrates of material and component parts used to manufacture diapers may include: backsheets, topsheets, absorbent cores, front and/or back ears, fastener components, and various other types of substrates and components such as leg elastics, barrier leg cuff elastics, and waist elastics. Once the desired component parts are assembled, the advancing substrate(s) and component parts are subjected to a final knife cut to separate the substrate(s) into discrete diapers or other absorbent articles. The discrete diapers or absorbent articles may also then be folded and packaged.
As mentioned above, during the assembly process, advancing substrates of material may be combined with component parts and other advancing substrates of material to form absorbent articles. Generally, component parts may be manufactured separate from other advancing substrates on a manufacturing line. For example, a continuous substrate of material may be used to form back ears and/or front ears. Further, additional components may be added to these back ears and/or front ears prior to being added to another advancing substrate of material. To add these component parts to an advancing substrate, the component parts must be positioned correctly so that they may be laid down on the advancing substrates in a desired orientation with respect to the advancing substrate. Further, the velocity of the component parts must substantially match that of the velocity of the advancing substrate so that the component parts are placed in the desired position on the advancing substrates. Nonetheless, due the structure of these component parts, which may be irregularly shaped or disproportionately weighted, and the limitations of currently available manufacturing equipment, manufacturers are limited as to how fast the advancing substrates can progress. The advancing substrate can only advance at a speed that the currently available manufacturing equipment can precisely deliver and position the component part onto the advancing substrate. However, due to increased demand for products and, thus, a necessity to speed up the manufacturing process, a need exists for improved apparatuses and methods of manufacturing absorbent articles that include transferring and positioning a discrete substrate on an advancing substrate.